Polymeric materials, while desirable in many applications due to ease of processing, low tooling cost, and design freedom, are usually not as strong or rigid as non-polymeric materials, such as metals or ceramics. Polymer-based composites have been developed in which reinforcement materials, such as non-polymeric fibers, are embedded in a polymer matrix in an attempt to combine the desirable properties of the polymer with the higher stiffness and strength of the reinforcement material. Attempts to incorporate fullerenes such as carbon nanotubes into polymer-based composites as a reinforcement material, to realize the benefits of the high-strength all-carbon molecular structure of fullerenes, have been met with limited success due to problems with entanglement, folding, low affinity for the matrix material, changes in rheological properties and processability, or difficulty in properly orienting such reinforcements.